Mass Foundations: A New Day
by Nord Ronnoc
Summary: Eric Grimes, an MIT student, was transported to the Mass Effect universe after an accident. The events of the trilogy had yet to take place, and he felt powerless to change them. Seeing no other option, he enlisted with the Alliance, hoping to find purpose in his new life. Part 2 of 5 in the Mass Foundations series.
1. Prologue: Arrival

**Author's Note: Hey there, this is the second installment of the Mass Foundation series, in case you've missed that fact from the summary. As such, let's get into the thanks to those who helped me with the series and the obligatory disclaimers.**

**Mass Effect, its characters, settings, etc., belong to BioWare and EA. Suing me over copyright would be a waste time. And I would like to give my thanks to my coauthor, 4Ferelden, and my editors, Niniendowarrior and Elseweyr of the Mass Effect wiki, for helping me with this chapter. I appreciate it, guys! Thanks!**

* * *

_**Mass Foundations: A New Day**_

_**Prologue: Arrival**_

_June 16, 2014, 6:15 PM_

_Bangkok, Thailand_

It was a hot day in the city of Bangkok, the traffic busy in spite of the hour. One car rumbled slightly as it passed over a road bump and into the sea of cars before it. For most people, this was usually a forgettable instance, but not to one curious passenger.

Eric Grimes, a 22-year-old thin man with short, black hair and hazel eyes, plunged into deep thought while sitting in the passenger's seat next to his brother and sister, observing the most fascinating phenomenon unraveling before him: quantum physics. It was astonishing how difficult the task was to separate their effect from reality. If calculus was the language of God, then quantum mechanics was His canvas, according to his professor. Eric was skeptical of that statement, not the religious sort himself, but he couldn't think of anything better to explain what he knew. As his mind sought for answers, he suddenly realized he was on vacation, a break from his MIT course.

"Eric, are you all right? You've been rather quiet lately," his mother, Felicia, called out.

Snapping out of his thoughts, Eric looked at his mother, who was sitting in the driver's seat. "Um… yeah, Mom. I'm fine. Thanks for asking," he answered. "I'm just thinking about that program."

He looked through the window as they rounded out the last intersection to the hotel, passing by a great obelisk: the Victory Monument. Garcia, his 25-year-old sister, tapped his shoulder excitedly to point out what he just saw.

From her avid research, Eric knew that this great structure was of Egyptian origin. Five statues stood near the bottom, representing each branch of Thailand's government: the army, navy, air force, police, and civilian bureaucracy, all in the western, photorealistic style. Eric responded to his braided, black-haired sister with a nod, disinterested in sight-seeing at the moment.

"Still getting so worked up on that?" his younger brother, Alphonse, asked from the back seat in a snide tone, indulged in his Nintendo 3DS. Being two years younger than Eric, Alphonse was a near-perfect splitting image of their father at 20, save for his long, black hair and a small scar near his chin, gained in a scuffle just before his school graduation. Alphonse wore a t-shirt to go with his dark shorts. Every time he tried to talk about gaming to his sister, she showed disinterest.

"Yeah. It's… kinda like learning another language at times. You can't forget this stuff like you can't forget that this car is _en coche_ in Spanish," Eric replied, already knowing it wouldn't be enough for him.

"Close, but you're getting there," Alphonse chuckled, proud of his superior Spanish skills. "Variables, quanta, stuff like that."

They finally approached the hotel and their mother was parking the car now. He could see Garcia's face lightening up with relief.

His mother planned for her and the rest of the family to stay at the hotel until Friday and visit Angkor Wat on Wednesday, leaving early in the morning. Eric was excited to see the legendary Buddhist temple in all its glory, but it would be a long trip, about 200 miles cross-country Thailand to Cambodia. Thankfully, they had their passports handy.

"Think we should head out and meet up with Grandpa and Grandma?" Garcia asked their mother while adjusting her ponytail.

"Yes, Garcia. They should be here any—" she was interrupted as her phone rang. For the moment, Eric thought that it might be his father, that maybe he managed to find some time away from work to call them. Having served in Afghanistan as an intelligence analyst, his father was determined that his family avoids any unnecessary risks in peacetime.

To his disappointment when he glanced over, it was his grandfather's number. He knew his father was busy and understood the responsibilities of his work, but he couldn't help but feel that he spent more time on computers than his family ever since becoming an IT manager.

"All right, we're moving out. Your grandparents got here with the taxi and are waiting for us." While he was lost in his thoughts, his mother had finished the phone call.

"Great!" Garcia replied eagerly as she and the others got out of their rented car, a grey Nissan X-Trail. They all grabbed their bags and suitcases from the trunk of the car, and set out for the hotel.

Stepping in, Eric found himself in a place he had hardly ever seen before. The interiors of the lobby were lush; the dark-brown wooden walls gave away a rich environment, combining the luxuries of hotels like the ones in New York City and the southeastern Asian cultures.

It didn't take very long to find his grandparents, as they were sitting on a couch at the lobby nearby. His grandfather, Arturo, wore a rather flamboyant Hawaiian t-shirt to go along with his khaki pants, while his grandmother, Carol, wore what anyone would have expected for their grandmothers: a light, fluffy sweater. He was sure she had some lighter dresses ready in one of the bags. After all, she was nothing if not considerate.

"Felicia, my darling! It's so great to see you and your children!" Eric's grandmother exclaimed, hugging his mother.

"Hey, Eric!" said his grandfather as he sat up. "How was your trip in Bangkok? Found any cute guys along the way?" He chuckled.

While his grandfather was open-minded about Eric's sexuality, he couldn't help himself but tease about it. It made Eric a bit uncomfortable, but his grandfather meant well. Nevertheless, he decided to go along.

"No, I didn't hook up with a complete stranger," he replied. "But I've been thinking about what you said back at Boston. About how well I did with my life."

"Did it help?" his grandfather asked, looking back.

"Yeah, a bit," Eric answered. "Thank you for your support on the quantum entanglement program."

His grandfather smiled, patting Eric on his shoulder. "I appreciate it, Eric. Anyway, shall we check in the hotel, Felicia? I would love to lie on a bed."

Eric and his family settled for three rooms on the sixth floor, where each were laid out on the same side. The middle room had one double bed, where his grandparents settled in while his mother and Garcia settled in the one on the left. The remaining room now belonged to Eric and Alphonse.

When they entered the room and turned on the light inside, the layout of the room was typical, though rather large, including a bathroom in front of them, two beds to their right, and a flatscreen TV in front of the beds. To their right, Eric and Alphonse saw a window showing the vast city, with the sky slowly becoming dark.

Alphonse dropped his bag by the bed furthest away from the window, landed on it, and got his 3DS. "Finally, something to lie down on!" said Alphonse as he started playing A Link Between Worlds again, the game he had gotten from Eric on his birthday in May. Eric placed his suitcase in front of the unoccupied bed and opened it, grabbed his toothbrush and paste and placed them on the sink in the bathroom. He then did his business with the toilet, relieved after eating during the trip to Thailand.

"Hey, want something to eat from the lobby?" Eric asked after he got out of the bathroom.

"Maybe a candy bar," Alphonse answered. "It's funny that A Link Between Worlds deals with parallel worlds, since you're studying something similar."

"Yeah, the many worlds theorem," Eric agreed. "But why use that game as a reference? It wasn't the first game to use that concept. Bioshock Infinite had it as a central theme." He wasn't much into gaming as his brother, but he was in the mood for conversation.

"Because I play Zelda. A lot," Alphonse shrugged in annoyance. "It's not like I play generic military shooter games."

"Oh come on, that's a cheap shot and you know it," Eric replied, chuckling. He opened the door to the hallway outside. "Anyway, I'll ask the others and see if they want anything. See you later."

"See ya," Alphonse replied as Eric left the room.

* * *

Eric and his family spent the next two days touring the city, seeing many monuments and trying out Thailand's delicacies. It was clear his family enjoyed it a lot, but it didn't work much for him. His mind still drifted from the relics he saw back at the university; he didn't take in much as a consequence. As such, he patiently waited for the day to see Angkor Wat. Early on Wednesday, they went off for Angkor Wat. The trip took about four hours, and for some time, they saw nothing but wetlands, even after they had passed the customs at the border with little difficulty.

Finally, they arrived at the temple, where the towers from the central part cast a great shadow from the north. His grandmother would appreciate being in the shade for once. They parked not far from the temple. When they got out of the car, his grandmother breathed deeply, basking in the fresh air after his mother helped her out of the car.

"Does the fresh air help, Mom?" Eric's mother asked. Eric knew his grandmother used to smoke a lot when she was young, causing many health problems for her. The worst was lung cancer, which was taken care of at an early stage. He found it astonishing and fortunate that she had lived for so long.

"Very much, dearie. Thank you," his grandmother answered with a smile.

His grandfather stepped towards his wife and pulled her into a gentle hug from behind, cradling her. "We'll make this trip worth it, honey," he said, kissing her on her head. "We can take pictures, capture the moment. Would you like that?"

Eric's grandmother nodded, and his grandfather pulled his small digital camera out of his fanny pack. "Okay, we each take turns in two. Eric, Alphonse, could you stand in front of the temple?"

Eric and Alphonse obeyed their grandfather and did so, with Alphonse resting his arm on Eric's shoulder while Eric made a small, simple smile. He was about to make the bunny ears gesture, but their grandfather told him no. Garcia and their grandmother were next after their grandfather took Eric's and Alphonse's picture, with them simply standing side by side. Lastly, Eric's mother took a picture of their grandparents, with them wrapped close to each other.

They made their way to the temple. Stepping inside, Eric saw the walls of the hallways, its white paint faded from centuries' worth of wear and tear of the elements, are decorated with carvings, detailing large-scale battles, like the Battle of Lanka, and Hindu mythology. Eric was so entrenched by the level of detail and the stories of people long past unraveling before him that he had lost track of all time. Somehow, he found himself alone in a small, circular room, empty, save for a simple, plain stone pillar placed right in the center. The pillar reached almost up to his chest, and was crowned with a single transparent sphere on top. For a moment, Eric thought the sphere shone all on its own. He looked up and noticed openings in the roof, some man-made, others the result of erosion. Sunlight from the outside shone through them, filling the otherwise dark room with light and reflecting off sphere's surface.

"That makes sense," Eric muttered to himself. But he couldn't help but find the placement convenient somehow, like an item room in a Zelda or a Megaman game. He felt ashamed of making these comparisons to what was likely a rarity of some sort, another treasure of a altogether different culture designed centuries ago. Eric looked around the room and noticed markings on the floor. They were faint, arranged in concentric order, and correlated perfectly with each opening carved in the ceiling. He supposed the whole place probably was an observatory of sorts, made to track the lunar cycle or such.

Eric turned to leave, but stopped and turned around. Something bothered him about that sphere. The glass-blowers back then were so precise that they created something perfectly round. He wondered how did a piece of something as fragile as glass survived all these years inside, through several wars and a revolution. _Maybe_, he said to himself, _the original piece had been replaced many times __with __replicas_. He walked closer, thinking that authorities might have put up and inscription of sort to elaborate on its history.

Up close, the sphere seemed even brighter, and took on a bluer hue, though that would make sense if it reflected in the skyline. However, there was no inscription of any kind on the pillar or on the floor. He looked at the sphere again, and wanted to touch it, feel its cool surface, but decided against it. _There was no use in being disrespectful to tradition_, he said to himself. _Better to find Garcia and the others, they would know what this thing was._

Eric felt a hum of some sort, but he didn't look back, wanting to find his family and ask them. He just needed to find the door he went through and trace back his steps. He circled the room's perimeter before he realized there wasn't a door. Somehow, he ended up there without a visible entry point of any kind.

At that point, the hum became unbearable, and he felt his teeth vibrate. Simultaneously, the entire room lit up with bright blue light – there wasn't even a trace of a shadow on the wall he faced. The small symbols in the stone seemed to glow with their own light, but the majority of illumination had to stem from the orb. If he turned to look at it now, he would probably be blinded, or worse. For the first time in years, Eric struggled to find a remotely scientific explanation for the events unfolding in front of him.

The hum and the vibrations have reached fever pitch, and he could perceive no other sound. The light around the room grew so bright, Eric had to close his eyes in spite of facing away from its source. Then, he collapsed in pain as he felt a jolt of electricity coursing through his body. He blacked out before he even hit the ground – if there even was a ground beneath him.

When he opened his eyes again, he was floating in darkness. He was hit with nausea like a bag of rocks, and could perceive a coppery, metallic taste in his mouth. Colors merged into and out of shapes. Time itself felt distorted to him. Eventually, everything started to come together. At first, it was just a blur of shapes and dull colors. More like silhouettes. Rays of light pierced through the water.

_Wait, I'm underwater…?_

He gasped for air, finding large bubbles coming out of his mouth. Water, fresh water, was going down his mouth. With all of his strength, he began to swim to the surface, which seemed to be so far away. He was running out of time. His vision was beginning to fade out, Eric swam faster and faster as far as his arms and legs could take him.

_I don't want to die_, his mind screamed as he began to lose the feeling in his legs from the frigid temperature of the water. Just as his body was about to give up from the strain, he managed to reach to the surface. Gasping for air, he was greeted with a very bright light. However, it was far from over; he needed to have some ground to rest on.

Thankfully, it didn't take very long to spot shore, but it was too far away for him to swim. He had no idea how exactly he got to this unknown place, but he had more important things to consider at the moment, such as not drowning.

"Oh god!" someone gasped. "Someone help him!"

Almost immediately, he heard a splash nearby. Turning his head, Eric saw a figure swimming towards him, but he couldn't decipher who exactly that person was or what that person looked like.

Just as the stranger reached out to him, he passed out from exhaustion.


	2. Chapter One: Awakening

**Author's Note: To clarify, Eric is somewhat familiar with the series and some of the structures of the setting; he only played the main games (all three Mass Effect games), but he hasn't read the comics nor the novels. Plus, by the time of his vacation, it has been at least several months since he had played any of the games.**

**And with that said, enjoy the chapter!**

* * *

**Chapter One: Awakening**

"One two three four, one two three four!"

These words were the very first things Eric heard. The sense of touch returned next as he felt something pressing very heavily on his chest. Air began to flow into his lungs as if someone was performing CPR on him. Eric forced his eyes to open. He blinked numerous times, trying to adjust to the bright light. He caught glimpses of the bright, cloudy sky, and something that seemed like a ring of some sort. Gasping for air, Eric coughed, and felt sick. In spite of himself, he proceeded to vomit uncontrollably.

"Don't fight it. It's just a natural reaction of someone who almost drowned," he heard the same voice say.

Eric was too weak to respond. Once the vomiting has subsided, he re-focused his vision on the object in front of his mouth. To his immense relief, the air was being pumped into his lungs by a medical device of some sort; he didn't even want to consider the implications of the alternative. With difficulty, Eric turned his head to look to a figure kneeling next to him. When his eyes adjusted to the brightness, he saw a woman, probably in her twenties, with tanned skin and brown hair, combed neatly, looking down at him.

"You need to lie still," said the woman. "Help will be on the way."

He was only glad to follow this advice. He felt his head go even lighter and closed his eyes again. "Hey, stay with me!" he heard the woman bark, just before he blacked out.

* * *

When Eric came back to his senses, he found himself lying on a comfortable bed and wearing a breathing mask, the tube attached from something nearby. His old clothing was gone, and he was clad in a pair of pajamas. That, along with the white-washed ceiling, told Eric he was most likely in a hospital, somewhere in Cambodia or Thailand, after almost drowning on their vacation. He must've done something stupid to end up like that, and was glad he survived. He would likely receive a solid scalding from his mother and grandparents, and had to return home immediately to a bigger one from his father. But he was ready for it. No one would want to lose a son to an accident on vacation.

_What happened to me?_ He wondered as he removed the breathing mask to try to think straight.

Cold sweat took hold of him as he realized that his memory of the events didn't seem to match up with what happened. The last thing that he definitely remembered was him and his family at Angkor Wat, nowhere near water. The last opportunity to drown was at the beach in Bangkok, from two days ago. He wondered if he never really went to Cambodia, but only dreamed of it while unconscious underwater.

On the surface, this was the best explanation, but he remembered the chain of events in between that last swim and the temple clearly, which was completely uncharacteristic of fake memories. It wasn't like an anime where one could fit entire season into a single dying dream. Eric chuckled, attempting to normalize the situation. No matter what else might happen, it wasn't possible for a brain to fit a several days into less than a minute. However, it was thought that our universe couldn't be accelerating further after the big bang either, so anything could happen.

The more he thought about it, the more convincing the idea became. The memory became jagged near the end, with that orb of blue light appearing out of nowhere. He remembered all the stories of light in the end of a tunnel and how they could be explained by science. That orb must be a rare variation of the same syndrome. Eric would be glad to share his testimony with physiologists once he would come back home. He glanced around the room, looked out of the window and suddenly the shivering returned in full force.

_Wait a minute. Bangkok doesn't look like that._ He saw a large lake fed by a river, both filled with clean, blue water that gleamed in the sunlight – a world away from the brown color of the Chao Praya River. A series of tall, white and somehow interconnected buildings were laid out on the other side, all arranged with unnatural efficiency. It all looked very futuristic for it to be on Earth, yet he couldn't help but recognize it from somewhere. It reminded him of something specific. After a moment of consideration, he shook his head. _It's probably a coincidence._ And the expense of actually building something like that with today's technologies would be counted in billions – if it could be done at all. As Eric was pondering the implications of that further, he suddenly saw a flying car pass by and gasped in shock.

There wasn't any doubt now: he has indeed ended up in the future. His thoughts as to whether he was in Cambodia or Thailand was now entirely irrelevant. _That sphere somehow created a wormhole and brought me here_, Eric tried to rationalize himself as he began to hyperventilate, his breathing pattern becoming rapid, his heart beating wildly._ That might explain how I got here, but…_

If he has indeed ended up in the future, it would make him as good as dead to his family, unless they were somehow transported with him. Eric seized on that thought, wishing deeply for it to be true. Maybe that orb, whatever it did, had managed to affect more than that room and also transported other people around. Eric recalled how much energy wormholes were meant to consume and distinctly hoped that when the wormhole inevitably collapsed, the discharge of energy wouldn't annihilate the temple.

He lay in the hospital bed for some time, his mind going through all the possible outcomes back in what was now his past. He realized that if, by chance, his family wasn't transported there and if the place wasn't destroyed, he was as good as dead to them. If anyone else noticed the flash, his case would probably become a mystery that would puzzle scores of ufologists and other conspiracy theorists. If he had just disappeared, then it would be an ordinary missing person's case. His heart clenched when he realized what that meant. His family would then stay in Cambodia for some time, desperately involved in the searches that could never pay off, before going back, never finding out what really happened. He remembered the dread he once felt when Alphonse tried to rebel and was late home from school for several hours, his phone turned off. Now, the entire family would feel like that, and worse, for God knows how long. If anything, their scars might never heal completely. But that would be preferable to them all being dead if the wormhole refused to play by the rules.

Eric desperately tried to think of something else, anything at all. He looked around the room again, and noticed the cardiac monitor near him, beeping steadily as it portrayed all his vital readings, and more, some readings entirely unknown to him, and, he suspected, most medical staff in his time. Still looking at the screen, he saw his own heart rate return to normal as he attempted to think of the bright side.

_Okay, so a nuclear war didn't happen. Nothing would be this clean otherwise. Meteorites haven't struck us down like dinosaurs, global warming didn't manage to drown everyone, and Skynet remains a distant nightmare. Good to know. If I could find out the year I'm in, it would be even better._

He looked out the window to see what else the future might've brought. More flying cars passed nearby, in proud defiance of most 21st century engineers. _Some sort of power source must've been invented for them to work_, Eric thought, _not to mention anti-gravity fields. Gravitons, maybe? Making their opposites at large quantities? Or does each of these things have the equivalent of a LHC in its engine compartment?_ As he considered other possibilities, he glanced down onto the sidewalk below and his eyes widened in shock, the relative calm he worked hard to build melting like a snowball on a hot day.

Most of the passers-by below weren't human. Some had a reptilian body structure with disproportionately large eyes. Others looked female, but in various shades of blue and with a weird scalp structure instead of hair. He spotted a pink-colored medusa-like creature causally floating—or rather walking—on the ground, before he turned away.

The existence of non-human creatures he could deal with. Aliens, genetically-engineered humans – Eric was down with them all. What was truly horrifying was that their existence, alongside a multitude of smaller details, has pointed to a very specific universe he has ended up in. He was in the Mass Effect universe, which only existed in his home universe as a video game franchise.

Eric couldn't lie in his bed and think any longer. If there was anything different, he needed to hear it now, from anybody who would answer him. He began ripping medical patches off his chest as he attempted to crawl away. The cardiac monitor was beeping urgently now and flashing warnings, but he didn't care. Suddenly, the remaining patches began to inject him with something, and he immediately began to feel light-headed. He only had enough time to glance at the monitor to see a "Patient containment!" notification on it before he passed out again.

* * *

_Boston, Massachusetts_

_12:16 PM, April 13, 2012_

_The spring air felt clean and fresh after it rained briefly. The sun began to show itself through the parting clouds, revealing the sky above. Long, un-trimmed grass swayed in the wind, the drops of water occasionally falling off them. If you looked into one for a while, you would begin to see each drop reflect its surroundings._

_All these things were something Eric usually ignored outright when he happened to walk through a public park. This was a special day, and he wasn't there alone._

_It was less than a week since his father came back from Afghanistan, having served there for five years. He was an analyst, and while it wasn't a frontline role, the whole family was still glad to see him alive and well. On the surface, Tomas Grimes looked much the same: he was still the same middle-aged man of medium height, with clean-shaven face, dark hair, and hazel eyes. His physical build had changed and his face bore more signs of his age, but that was it. It was a different story inside, however._

_At home, his father would tell them about other analysts and personnel he served with, the stories they shared and the jokes they told. He was largely silent on the manner of their military operations, and none of them were willing to press the matter. Instead, they simply rejoiced in finally having him back, especially since soon they might not see much of him again once he resumed his work in the IT industry. _

_This fondness of nature had been a new trait, Eric thought, as they continued to walk on the side path. Before he joined the army, environment was rarely a topic of the day. _

"_It's good to be home," his father suddenly spoke, his voice subdued. "Our city, this park … how often did we even visit it back then?"_

"_Not very often," Eric admitted. "We usually go to the movies, or even the theatre, a lot more often than these places."_

_His father shook his head. "I admit, it was fun back then. All of you loved it and it seems turned out well in life. Your sister has found a job she likes and met a good bloke, you're now in MIT and set to pick particles apart, Alphonse… well, he's still too young to judge his progress. I wonder if we missed something back then?"_

"_Dad, I appreciate this conversation, but … why are we talking about it? Is there a point to it?"_

"_A point?" Tomas chuckled quietly. "I thought that was the occupation of philosophers, not scientists. You people are only supposed to think of how things work, not why they happen. Yet, it's rarely possible to separate the two, isn't it?"_

_He paused, and then continued. "When I joined up back then, it was all about the great things, great goals, for all of us. Freedom, liberty, security, all that jazz. But as the months went on with no progress in sight, it's all about thinking small. Assisting in this operation over a week to protect two villages for another month, then providing intel to guide this convoy back in place, before updating the software here. Accomplishments like this are what made us stay on and continue, see purpose even as our commanders couldn't find one."_

_The once gentle wind intensified in its strength. Eric looked up to the sky. The clouds seemed to be gathering again… _

* * *

Eric's eyes fluttered open as he woke up, staring at the window to the lake below. He saw the sky brightening in transition from night to morning. It looked almost normal, until he turned to his right and found an indigo-skinned woman with a scalp crest for hair. This reminded him where he was, and thinking back to the games, he identified her as an asari: a long-lived, mono-gendered species with an affinity for biotics. Her eyes were fixed on a screen projected from an orange light on her left wrist, looking rather bored out of her mind. Upon noticing that he was awake, she deactivated the light and assumed a professionally-concerned expression.

"It's good to see you're awake," she said. "We were a bit worried about you after the yesterday's attempt to leave supervision. How are you feeling now?"

"A lot better, thanks," Eric answered half-truthfully, sitting up and thinking of what to do. This was now going to be his first conversation in this unknown universe. He had to obtain as much information as possible, if only to find the best way to get back home or discover another wormhole.

"Where am I? And … what's the date?"

The asari looked at him with a perplexed expression. "You don't know where you are? You're at the Huerta Memorial Hospital on the Presidium Ring of the Citadel. From your species' calendar, today is June 17, 2180. Since Natalie Clay brought you in, you've been out for several hours."

_So that's who it was_, Eric thought, gasping when the date was mentioned. He wasn't even on Earth, but on the Citadel, the iconic space station of the franchise and heart of Council races. Not only that, but he arrived three years before events of the first game, though it still placed him 166 years into his future. "I see…" he said, realising he needed to find a reason for his ignorance. "I... it wasn't clear after what happened to me. I remember it now." The asari nurse nodded in response.

The metal door at the end of the room parted open, and a woman in blue-and-black uniform came through, her hair tied in a short ponytail. Almost immediately, he recognized her as his savior.

"I take it you're here to see the patient?" the asari asked, seeming both relieved and intrigued.

"Yeah, I got clearance from Dr. Oron," the woman answered. "Do you mind if you leave us alone?"

"Of course," the nurse nodded, sat up and left, the door closing at its own accord. Eric tensed at having to talk to someone else from a fictional universe, but then he realized this was the woman who saved his life, no matter how bad he might feel about his situation.

"Um…" Eric began to speak, looking down at his bed. It was still difficult for him to maintain eye contact. "So... you're Natalie Clay, right? Thank you for rescuing me."

"Please don't say that. This is the professional duty of C-Sec, and we are taught not to treat these cases personally." the woman, Natalie, answered as she sat on the chair and pulled out a card. "We need to move this case forwards. I went through your belongings at the C-Sec HQ and found this. I take it you're Eric Grimes?" she asked, giving Eric the card.

Eric looked at it, realizing this was his ID card. Everything was as expected: his name, birth date of March 14, 1992, expiration date, ID number, zip code, signature, and a two year-old picture of him. The only real difference between then and now was longer hair in the picture: it reached down to the base of his neck like his brother's.

"Yeah, that's me," he answered. "But I'm not-"

"The analysts at C-Sec were sceptical of what they find on you," said Natalie. "The ones who aren't human don't even recognize most of the stuff they've found. They think your stuff is fake and-" Her expression immediately grew perplexed, as she visibly struggled to describe this situation. It was understandable, though.

"Can you tell me how you got to the lake on the Presidium?" Natalie asked, seeking a different approach. "It might clarify a lot of things and put the analysts at ease."

Eric looked down at his bed and pinched the bridge of his eyebrows, trying to think of a reply. He fought off the idea of a dialogue wheel appearing before his face, with all choices neatly laid out. While Mass Effect might have been a game in his world, it seems like he would have to treat this place as seriously as he did for his former world.

"I-I don't know how I would answer that," Eric replied nervously. "I'm not even sure you would believe me if I told you the truth. You'll probably think I'm insane!"

Natalie leaned in from her chair and let out a gentle smile, something like his mother would do to cheer him up whenever he felt depressed. "Eric," she simply stated. "I don't think you're insane. Hell, you might have travelled through time for what we know for sure. That's likely the best explanation anyone could've come up with how you got here."

"But-"

"I understand you're under a lot of stress right now. Take your time. I know you'll try your best to be honest with yourself."

Eric thought that Natalie, apparently an officer at C-Sec, the law enforcement branch of the Citadel, had a good point. But he was unsure of how to put it in a way that Natalie could understand when it didn't even make sense to him. He went through the sequence of events in his mind again, to try and form a coherent answer.

He would obviously have to leave out the part about Mass Effect being a game universe back at home. No one would believe their entire existence and surroundings came to down to the will of a few programmers somewhere else, and even if they did, this wouldn't help him at all. He decided it was best to think of the situation in terms of the many worlds theorem, as he was taught in his quantum physics class. In the whole wide multiverse, untold millions of variables and outcomes somehow aligned to make his predicament possible, and he just had to accept it.

"I… you're not far off from the picture," Eric finally answered after long deliberation.

Natalie's smile grew wider, proud that she was largely correct in her theory. "Okay," she said. "So how exactly did you get here?"

Eric realized that he would have to leave out the real dates from his story as well. It would it make his story sound even more far-fetched and attract a lot more attention from C-Sec and others.

"I was on a vacation with my mother, my brother, and my grandpa and grandma," Eric explained. "At Bangkok. We spend the a few days there and went to Angkor Wat. I found myself in an inaccessible room, no exits or anything like that, with this really weird sphere. I can't find a scientific explanation for how exactly it works. I could be brought here by a wormhole. It glowed so bright that I had to cover my eyes. The next thing I know, I got shocked and got sent here. That's all I remember." Eric hoped that the Angkor Wat still existed in this world. For all he knew, it might've been destroyed in a war or demolished any number of years earlier.

"I see…" Natalie muttered. "I'm not certain how the others would take your testimony at face value, but for what it's worth… I believe you." She then sat up from the chair and approached the door, which opened of its own accord as a green light disappeared from view.

"So what will happen then?" Eric asked with slight disbelief.

"I'll file a report about your case to my superiors," Natalie replied. "After that, well… you'll have to hope for the best. The C-Sec officials will probably find a way to cover this up, so you shouldn't end up in an asylum, or worse. Your complete lack of background documents is a large problem, but not an insurmountable one. Even today, there are plenty of colony and spacer-born kids that were never registered at birth. If you choose to apply for the citizenship, you case will look no different from theirs, and you'll have a chance if you create good reputation for yourself."

Eric looked up at the C-Sec woman with a smile on his face, his expression hopeful. "Thanks!" he exclaimed.

"Don't hold your breath." Natalie replied. "It's still a complicated process, and the bureaucracy seems to be getting worse with every year. Right now, I have to leave for the headquarters to file progress report on your case. Good luck!"

With that, Natalie left and the door closed behind her, leaving Eric alone in the room. All signs of happiness faded from his face, as he realized that the challenges have only just begun. His eyes welled up with tears, streaming down his cheeks. He brought his knees up to his face.

"I want to go home!" he sobbed. Though deep down, he knew it wasn't going to be possible to find easy way home. Maybe, just maybe, he could find that same sphere at the Angor Wat again, and travel back through it. However, that would require him to get back to Earth from the Citadel first. From what he remembered of the games' galaxy map, the Solar System was at least three Mass Relays away from the Citadel.

As he followed that train of thought, the in-game events took a new meaning for him with terrifying clarity. Natalie and others might not know this, but this entire world was about to be shattered in several years' time, when the Reapers will invade and begin their harvest. In just six years, the war against Reapers and Cerberus will unfold right before him, a war that claimed the lives of billions. This time around, he wouldn't control a great commando remotely and have no checkpoints to back him up. He would experience all this in his flesh and blood, as a helpless bit player who had every chance to die. And that was before considering the geth and the Collector invasions.

Eric's sobbing re-intensified as he has felt dread like never before. For the first time in his life, Eric was truly alone, with war and devastation being the only certainty about his future.

* * *

Slowly and unwillingly, Eric got off the bed and put on a pair of hospital-issue slippers by the bed. Whatever was going to happen to him in the future, he sure he couldn't cry his way through it. With this in mind, he approached the sink on the counter, the water running as soon as he touched the spout. Eric washed his face, cleaning the dried tears from his cheeks.

His stomach growled when he turned off the sink and dried his face with a fresh towel. He hadn't eaten anything for almost a day – a day in Earth time, anyway. Eric wasn't sure about Citadel's time, although it hardly mattered in his situation.

The door opened and the nurse from before entered the room, carrying a tray with toast waffles, a few strips of bacon, and some scrambled eggs on a plate and a cup of orange juice. His stomach growled once again when the asari placed the food on the counter. Grabbing the tray and sitting on his bed, he ravenously ate through the meal. He never tasted something so good before in his life until now.

"I can tell you're really hungry," the nurse commented as Eric finished his meal, emptying his plate. "I figured I would stop by the cafeteria and grabbed some breakfast for you while Natalie visited you."

"Thanks," said Eric, wiping his mouth with a cloth napkin. He considered himself to have good table manners. "By the way, what's your name? I don't think I caught it earlier."

"Oh," the asari smiled. "My name's Alynea Tani. And you're Eric Grimes?"

"Yeah. I take it Natalie told you my name?"

"Yes, she did," Alynea answered. "Is there something else I can do for you?"

"Hm…" Eric pinched the bridge of his nose as he thought about what to do next. Logically, there would be a wide variety of services available in the hospital, but knowledge was crucial if he was to formulate some kind of a plan. "Is there any way to look something up?" he asked.

"Yes, you can access the Extranet on a terminal," Alynea answered.

Eric felt a glimmer of hope in him. Perhaps there could be a way for him to earn a living or a way to get back to Earth. Somehow. "Great! Is there one in the hospital? I don't want to end up getting lost in here."

"Of course," the asari answered. "It's right this way." She approached the door as it opened, prompting her and Eric to leave the room.

Walking down the hallway, Eric found much of the hospital to be rather robust with plenty of activity, filled with a variety of species, including humans. To his right, when he and Alynea took a left turn from his room, there was a window covering the entire wall, showing the lake of the Presidium from the other side. Large, dark-blue letters, spelling out the name of the hospital, were laid out across the entire window in reverse. Eric couldn't help himself but feel shocked by his lack of familiarity with the technologies, the new cultures, and the species he saw and encountered. He knew the games he had played wouldn't be able to show everything because of technical limitations, but he wouldn't imagine how exactly lively things really were. However, something troubled him ever since he first talked to the asari nurse.

"Hey, could I ask you something?"

"Go ahead," Alynea replied.

"How exactly can I understand what you're saying?" Eric asked.

"Huerta's a human-dominated hospital. If I remember this correctly, it was named after your newly elected President, Christopher Huerta," she explained. "Studying human languages is part of my specialty, although it is rarely used. Most people employ digital translators, incorporated into jewellery, earpieces, PDAs, and even neural implants. They update very frequently. I'm surprised you didn't know about them."

"Sorry. Guess I'm a bit out of the loop here," Eric apologized, feeling embarrassed at his own ignorance. Some part of his conscious screamed that this doesn't matter, not when there'll be war soon. He had to suppress this thought, or else he wouldn't be able to do anything at all.

They arrived at a small room filled with rows of desks with orange, holographic screens on top. There were relatively few other people there. One of the occupants had scaly, silver skin with a pair of mandibles over his beaked mouth, which Eric recognized him as a turian. If he remembered correctly, their female counterpart's head crests are less pronounced. The turian didn't seem to notice them coming in, fixated on his terminal.

"Well, here's the extranet cafe," said Alynea. "If you need anything else, don't be afraid to ask me or other members of the staff."

"Appreciate it," Eric replied. When the nurse left him alone in the room, Eric sat down at the nearest unoccupied terminal available. Looking at it, Eric couldn't help but compare its likeness to a laptop, save for the screen and keyboard to be holographic. He expected not to perceive anything when he placed his fingers onto the holographic keys, but it still felt like a real keyboard. He couldn't help but find it bizarre. He wondered how many other contradictions he could find, and if they might prove key to him leaving this universe.

After getting used to the terminal and its functions, Eric decided to type in Mass Effect into the extranet, wondering what he would find. The result was a series of articles on the mass effect field as a scientific phenomenon. He looked through an encyclopaedic article of sorts, and to his surprise it appeared to be entirely self-consistent. He looked over a plethora of formulae that strongly resembled what he studied at MIT. Some key variables had to be extremely different, but he couldn't pinpoint any obvious deviations so far.

Eric shrugged. "Huh. At least this universe's rules are consistent," he mumbled to himself. He wanted to further test the boundaries of this place, to see if he can find something that would help him go home. He typed in Mass Effect Bioware game and hit enter.

The first thing that came up was the article for BioWare as a historical company. In this universe, it had existed from 1998 to 2023. He looked at the list of games produced, including their collaborations with Obsidian Entertainment. Baldur's Gate 1 and 2, Neverwinter Nights 1 and 2, and Baldur's Gate 3: The Black Hound. He blinked in confusion at the discrepancy.

He looked through the list again. In the Mass Effect universe—though Eric wasn't sure if he should call it that by this point—BioWare managed to extend both Dungeons & Dragons franchises. Dragon Age seemed to have entered development later but it ended up costing too much to cover its cost, and Jade Empire received a sequel. There was an absence of Knights of the Old Republic, its MMO counterpart, and the Mass Effect series. Instead, there was the SFX franchise that seemed to be built on similar foundations to Mass Effect.

Eric nodded. To him, it made sense in a roundabout way. He hit the back button on the browser and was about to search something else before a small news headline caught his attention.

_The "XCOM" conspiracy club celebrates its 15th birthday with an influx of members, founder claims to be right all along._

Eric reflexively clicked on the article and looked up the group in question. According to the article, a librarian at the Arcturus Library found the Bureau: XCOM Declassified game 15 years ago. It was largely forgotten after its release and was struck by its similarities to the way modern combat operations are conducted. He claimed that the game's founder must have looked into the future and devoted his life to proving the connection. Only a few thousand believed his claims enough to join his group, but the uncanny similarity had rekindled interest in the game, leading to large-scale re-prints and made its original editions a valuable collector's item.

Eric couldn't help but chuckle when he finished reading the article, amused at the fact something so obscure, so insignificant in his world could find a cult following of thousands here, for a truly absurd reason. Of course, Alphonse told him one time that the Bureau's gameplay had many similarities to Mass Effect's. Eric thought about his family again and all mirth disappeared. He went back to the search page with a new goal. He must know whether or not his family had existed, at least at some point, in this universe.

_Eric Grimes_

Browsing through the results, Eric found that a good portion of them refer to an athlete sharing his name. The image section didn't show any pictures of him in his life, and same applied to the audio one.

_Garcia Grimes_

The results had multiple people, almost all of them had 'Garcia' as their middle name. Of course, Grimes was a common surname and there are billions of people in the galaxy. However, he was still getting worried, even if he couldn't figure out why.

_Alphonse Grimes_

It was the same result as before, even when he put it in quotes.

_Arturo Lorenzo_

_Carol Lorenzo_

_Felicia Grimes_

_Tomas Grimes_

Frustrated, he typed in Grimes family tree, hoping that anything, anything useful would show up. Spotting a site that lead to a database for family trees, he reflexively clicked on the link. Typing in his grandfather's full name into the keyword box and altered the filters to the exact results, he found nothing. No records of any sort. He was alone, a person out of place that never should have existed there.

"No. Nonononono…" Eric gasped, covering his mouth with his left hand. "You gotta be kidding me." Even though none of them would have been alive to see them, he still held out hope to perhaps meet their descendants, to be less alone in this world. Even finding where they were buried would have at least given closure. Yet, there was nothing to connect him to anyone in this whole world.

The turian broke away from his terminal, where he was a few seats away to Eric's left. He turned at Eric, speaking in a series of mumbles, clicks from his mandibles, and other strange noises. Eric couldn't understand a word the turian was saying, lacking a translator himself.

Eric immediately sat up and left the room, pacing into a fast walk as he entered the hallway. He didn't want any more attention to himself, anyone acting concerned for him. They wouldn't understand what he was going through. No one could. Finding a spot in the maze of hallways where he could be by himself, he leaned against the grey wall and slumped into the floor, bringing his hands through his hair. He began to sob, his head threading with a headache. It was all too much for him. He didn't know what to do right now, with his life was turned upside down.

It was a new day for him. A terrible beginning.


End file.
